Seventeen Months

My little baby is seventeen months old.   He is turning into such a kid.  From the bandages on his knees, to the dirt smudges on his cheeks, to the adamant opinions he is vocalizing - he's becoming less and less baby and more and more kid.  At the same time, he's still nursing regularly, so cuddly, and still so little.  Here's the monthly rundown. 

• Singing and "reading" - He has a couple board books that he can "read" aloud.  He can read "Baby Faces" in it's entirety - yes, all six words of it ;)  He is filling in words to more than a dozen songs and singing more and more songs on his own.  Dino Five (cuppa cuppa cuppa) and Cloudy, Cloudy (goggy goggy) are his two favorites.  
• Decision making - I've recently begun more deliberately offering him choices for clothing, food, books and activities.  It has blown open his world.  He gets so excited and puts one finger to his mouth and says, "hmmmm, hmmm" (I guess he saw me do that at some point?) and then points to his choice and is DELIGHTED when that's what we do/wear/eat. 
• Phrases - He is officially stringing together words.  He will say, "more grapes please" or will list the people he loves by saying, "althou mama, althou dad, althou Talula, althou AnFe."  (He often does this early in the morning, and it's a very sweet sound to wake up to.)
• Favorite activities - coloring, drawing, painting, playdough, mixing - basically if it makes a mess, he loves it.  He's also digging his shape sorter and xylophone.  
• Fork and other utensils - He still tends to dump the contents onto his lap right before reaching his mouth, but if it's something a little sticky (like mashed potatoes) he mostly gets it into his mouth.  He's also getting pretty good at maneuvering his toothbrush, when he's not just sucking the water out of it.  
• Mobility - Running, marching, "jumping", backwards and forwards, downward dog, round and round, up and down - he never stops.  I'm hoping to get a good video of these activities, but I haven't had any luck yet.  He is also constantly climbing.  He tries climbing from chair, to table, to window sill - it's terrifying.    
• Teething - He's still working on the second set of teeth.  Initially he did the first eight in a short span, and now he's working on six more.  He's good about letting me look in his mouth to check the progress and it looks SO painful.  His poor gums are swollen and the pointy teeth are sharp on my fingers while the flatter ones are just showing up as a ring of white still working to push the middle through.  Ouch. 
• Height - he can now reach door knobs and things near the edge of kitchen counters (hello knives!).

He's doing great.  He's sleeping from 8pm - 7 am (mostly, barring some rough teething nights) and taking a 1-3 hour nap at around noon or one pm.  He's eating most of what we offer him - although raw veggies are still a hard sell.  He's still generous with the hugs and kisses.  I have no complaints.